Will Madonna have her big comeback? Well, it seems that she's certainly ready for one. And perhaps it would be welcome given the fact that her diehard fans have remained loyal to her over her illustrious career. Additionally, so many major artists claim to have been influenced by her and many are likely to want to collaborate. After all, Madonna certainly knows how to make the news.
Over her incredible career, the Michigan-born superstar has been involved in many creative controversies that have gotten her banned in some countries. One of these controversies actually surrounded her Blond Ambition Tour in 1990 and the documentary film, Truth Or Dare, that covered it. Here's the true story behind the tour got her more conservative critics all up in arms...
Madonna Was Trying To Be Controversial
There's a certain honesty in what Madonna has done creatively. Whether you like her, love her, hate her, or are just indifferent, there's no denying that she's remained true to herself in the moment. And in 1990, Madonna was all about being downright controversial. She had some of the biggest songs in the world, at the time. In particular, "Like A Prayer" was top of the charts, and thought that she could capitalize off the success of that song in a tour that has gone down as one of her best and her most controversial.
Madonna took her Blond Ambition Tour, which was her third, across ten counties with a whopping 57 shows. In the opening number of the song, Madonna came out on stage which was dressed as a steampunk homage to Fritz Lang's iconic film, Metropolis. She then got onto a velvet bed and sung "Like A Virgin" where she started simulating pleasuring herself. This act actually almost got her arrested in Toronto, Canada.
Within the show were numerous other references to female empowerment and sexuality. Without a doubt, this tour influenced much of what young female artists have done since. The documentary that was made on this tour made the impact of the tour even more far-reaching.
Also on her Blond Ambition Tour was her now-famous cone bra, which was designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier, and an entire concert dedicated to her friend Keith Haring, who passed away from AIDS around the same time. According to a fantastic interview by Vulture, Rolling Stone named the tour was one of the best of the past 50 years. There's no doubt that the fact the show was deemed 'controversial' added to the appeal, the press, and the longevity of its impact on pop culture.
"There was so much controversy during the tour," Madonna's former publicist, Liz Rosenberg, told Vulture. "The religious iconography and of course that “Like a Virgin” thing. I remember saying to myself, she’s never going to get away with this. It’s not going to work, and then continuing to defend her point of view. She did get away with it, I think, because she wasn’t afraid. We absolutely thought they were going to arrest her [in Toronto]. She had the balls to say, 'I’m not changing it, I don’t care.'"
During a 1991 MTV interview, Madonna explained that she didn't want to top what she had done before by being controversial. In fact, it was all about taking her art to the next level.
"The idea isn’t that I have to top myself, but that I have to expand my own horizons and tackle the next issue or go further in terms of creativity and what it is I want to say and what it is I want to do. I don’t want to just keep doing the same thing and saying the same thing, and the thing is that the issues that I’m interested in life are generally controversial issues," Madonna explained.
The Show Was Also Supposed To Be Highly Theatrical
While speaking with Vulture, the Blond Ambition Tour co-director and choreographer, Vincent Paterson, explained that Madonna wanted to change the perception of pop concerts.
"I had directed Michael Jackson’s first tour. It was always about letting the world see him as a solo artist, so we didn’t do a lot of costume changes or big set changes. But Madonna was different," Vincent explained. "I was constantly going from one [singer] to the other, and the interesting thing was they were always asking me questions about the other one. We really wanted to create a pop tour that was highly theatrical, like nobody had ever quite seen before. Bette Midler and David Bowie dabbled in it, but not to the extent we did."
This meant that all of the sets had to be massive, the customers had to be over-the-top, and each segment had to tell a story visually to accompany the one being told in her music. Luckily for Madonna, she was also able to lean on her then-partner, film legend Warren Beatty. While Waren remained fairly aloof when visiting the soundstages in Burbank, where Madonna was rehearsing, he did share his opinions with the singer and director in private. Many of these choices ended up making it into the tour.
Regardless, the Blond Ambition Tour was Madonna's baby. She knew exactly what she wanted and didn't want. But it does sound as though she was fairly open to collaboration.
What was also clear was the fact that she knew that this tour was something special. This is why she fronted nearly $4 million of her own money to pay for the behind-the-scenes concert film, Truth or Dare. This concert film broke the mold for projects of that nature at the time. It offered viewers full access to everything going on, including interviews with the backup dances and the attendants on set.
After the film's release in 1991, it remained the highest-grossing documentary of all time until 2004, when Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 came out. This has unquestionably contributed to the incredible legacy of Madonna's most controversial tour.